attack on pearl harbor?

Question

I have seen three movies showing the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor. They had this well-planned attack, of which worked, to a point. But then they sail back to Japan. Huh? Didn't anyone think we might be pissed and attack back? Personally, I felt we should have gone over, bombed one of their ports, and called it even. We lost a LOT more due to the war than the attack on Pearl.

Answer 1

Japan knew they could not win a protracted war against the USA.
but they felt they had to stop the US from intervening in their plans to take over all of Asia. Their so-called "Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". They also needed resources that the Japanese Home Islands did not have. the "Southern Resource Zone".
In Order to stop American interferance and yet not get into a war with the US, Japanese Military commanders decided that the way to go was with one great big attack that not only would shock the US into compliance but also destroy their ability to do anything about it. In otherwords. to wipe out the US Pacific Fleet in one big blow.

While the attack was sucessful the Japanese Erred in two ways.
1) they missed the primary targets of the US Aircraft Carriers. and they underestimated American industrial might to restore all but a couple of the ships sunk at Pearl.

2) They thought the US was a soft pushover with no will to fight. They underestimated our outrage at being attacked when we wanted to be left alone. USA at the time was very Isolationist. Slogans like "Hitler is Europe's problem" were common.

Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was against the war from the start. He knew it was a mistake. however he was ordered to do so and under the Japanese Miltary code of honor (decendant of the Samurai code of "Bushido") He had no choice but to do his duty. If he had to do this thing. Attack America, then their best chance was the suprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Even though he knew it was a snowballs chance in hell. It was Yamamoto that came up with the plan to attack Pearl and ordered it carried out. After he discovered that they Missed the Carriers he was quoted as saying "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve."
That "terrible resolve" culminated a few years later with the total vaporization of two Japanese cities. the total immolation of most all other cities. total destruction of the entire Japanese imperial might, and the destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet (which an Island nation is dependant upon for survival)

As to your suggestion that we should have just attacked ONE of their ports and called it even.
If more people thought like you.....

the whole world would speak only two languages. Japanese and German.

Answer 2

The JIN assumed the USN carriers would be in port. The JIN also didn't understand how quickly the US could repair or build ships. They assumed the Pearl Harbor would put the USN out of commission for a few years at least. The JIN wanted to make a bold strike so they could upstage the Japanese Army. The Japanese Imperial Army was much more interested in war with the USSR than with the US. Don't underestimate inter-service rivalry as a factor in Japanese militarism.

So the JIN attacked Peal Harbor with what they had and did not follow up with an invasion. Remember that the Flying Tigers were fighting in China from about 1938. So hostility between Imperial Japan and the US did not begin at Pearl Harbor. The way the Japanese were headed at the time made an eventual strike on Manila inevitable, and Americans had been genuinely disgusted with Japanese behavior in China for a long time. So if it wasn't Pearl, something else would have the initiated the conflict.

Answer 3

Add another movie to your list. I believe the title is "They were Expedible". When the Japanese bombed Pearl they also began the assualt on the Phillipines, including attacking the large contingent of US forces stationed there. By the time we had mustered enough of a force to do that bombing you are talking about the Japanese had taken thousands of US soldiers prisoner and begun the infamous Bataan Death March.

While the attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, the war with Japan was not. The US government had been planning for such a war since the 1920s..not planning well, but still planning. There were a series of plans with names like Plan Orange, Plan Blue, etc (I may be off on the colors). The leaders of the time could foresee that the two leading powers would come to a struggle. The US was ill prepared at the start but actually had been gearing up the war machine for a couple of years. In the movie "Tora Tora Tora" the Japanese admiral talks about waking a sleeping giant but in reality the giant was already awake, he just didn't have his armor on yet.

Answer 4

America did attack back - A guy called General Dollitle or sumthing had a squadron of b-17s launch off an aircraft carrier and went and bombed tokyo, America couldnt bomb one of theyre ports because Japan's battleships werent all in one port, plus i think the main reason that japan bombed pearl harbour was to sink the aircraft carriers which werent in port at the time of the bombing so maybe thats why they didnt send the 2 nd wave

Answer 5

The Japan of today would not exist if the government at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor hadn't been thoroughly defeated. Japan today is a democratic and prosperous country.

Answer 6

Ummm... your clueless about history aren't you? After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanses invaded:
Phillipines
Hong Kong
Borneo
East Indies
The Aleutian Islands
Wake Island
Midway

The Japanese brought more than a simple attack on Pearl Harbor. They brought War. Do you really think they would have stopped?

Answer 7

We didn't have the logistical ability to attack Japan in 1941. Airplanes require fuel, bases, etc. And you need to INVADE their territory with infantry. There was no question of "calling it even" with that sort of enemy.

The whole pacific war was a strategic island-hopping approach, engineered by the great General McArthur, until we could finally threaten Japan itself.

And they still wouldn't give up, even after the devastating (non-nuke) firebombing that incinerated about 2/3 of Tokyo.

Answer 8

You must have gone to the restroom in the middle of the movie. The US sent Jimmy Doolittle over to bomb Tokyo.

Jimmy stripped down some bombers so they could take off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo. Unfortunately, the planes were still to heavy/big to land on the aircraft carriers and didn't hold enough fuel to get back to any us owned territory, so had to land in China.

Answer 9

You are defiantly a product of the MTV generation that does not know dick about anything to with anything. We flew some bombers over those jap bastards and bomb the hell out of them days later they are know as "Doolittle's Raiders " it was pretty much a suicide mission but our boys got the job done. If this Iraq garbage was 60yrs ago this war would be over with in a week, but the American media and people have no stomach for collateral damage we all have to be politically correct these days because we just might upset a towel head or hurt his feelings .

Answer 10

That wouldn't have ended the war. Japan had to put the American navy out of commission in order retain it captured oil and rubber supplies.
We didn't attack back at once because we didn't have the means. Our navy was shattered and there were no bombers that could reach Japan at that time.